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Kaite O'Reilly is an award-winning playwright and a recipient of two Cultural Olympiad Commissions. She blogs about writing and the process of writing with a focus on four forthcoming productions, which revolve around disability issues.

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British Sign Language (BSL) creative consultant and performer Jean St Clair has been a close friend and collaborator for a dozen years. She has worked with me on many productions – advising on translation/ reinvention from spoken/written language into visual language with National Theatre Wales (‘In Water I’m Weightless’, 2012), Graeae (‘peeling’ 2002) and now for a second time with Forest Forge Theatre company (‘peeling’ 2011, ‘Woman...

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“Nothing is worth more than laughter. It is strength to laugh and to abandon oneself, to be light. Tragedy is the most ridiculous thing.” We are working on my performance text ‘The 9 fridas’ and dealing constantly with Frida Kahlo’s defiance in the face of pain and adversity. One reason why I chose to make this text was a desire to reclaim Kahlo as a disability icon and inspiration, rather than the ‘tragic but brave’ mainstream representations of...

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Chevela Vargas haunts me. Her smoky, broken voice is the soundtrack to my dreams and the first thing I become conscious of when I wake. The raspy passion of her songs play in my head all day and then loop and replay in my mind all night. Torch singer, lesbian icon, rumoured lover of Frida Kahlo, her voice is part of the audio for the Taiwanese production of my script ‘The 9 Fridas’. The photo of her sexy and supine, her hand casually resting on the breast of a laughing Frida Kahlo...

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We are in the first days of rehearsals with Mobius Strip Theatre Company in Taipei, Taiwan. ‘The 9 Fridas’ is a performance text with multiple protagonists who are and yet are not the Mexican artist Frida Kahlo. In the script I’ve taken moments from her extraordinary life and reframed and reinvented them, in contemporary contexts. Using cross-gender, cross-impairment casting, we are creating a mosaic of voices and experiences which, when combined, suggest the whole. The...

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There is sun and great heat and tropical plants and Mandarin in the air alongside the song of crickets. There are no sheep, or the blessing of Welsh rain – although I’ve been told to expect a typhoon or two in the next six weeks. In my fridge I have fresh lychee, longan (‘dragons’ eyes’), and green tea with grapefruit. There are smiles everywhere. As Phillip Zarrilli put it last night after we were showered with greetings coming out of the MRT (underground):...

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Turning written text into visual, physical language – transforming words on the page into signs and gestures that take flight…. I love working with Jean St Clair. In her London apartment this week, I worked with her and Sophie Stone, transforming written text from my new play Woman of Flowers into flowing, beautiful visual language. Although I’ve been working with Jean now for a dozen years on translation and recreating English text into theatricalised sign, I always...

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It is, I think, a most peculiar way to make a living. No two days are the same and my working life at the moment is of such a surreal quality, normally loquacious taxi drivers are silent as I outline the activity…. ‘Today at work I’m observing slow motion filming of water being poured onto various parts of various actors’ bodies…’ Still, that’s probably nothing compared to what Jacob probably said when he got home for tea that night (‘Well, I...

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Kaite O’Reilly on the Cultural Olympiad. An extract from ‘Rich Text’ NWR 96: It’s 1995 and I’m lying in front of the wheels of a bus in Wood Street, Cardiff. The bus is ticking over, the driver occasionally revving the engine to try and scare me and so dislodge my body from beneath his bumper. As he does so, a thrilling reverberation is sent through the fat rubber of the wheel and into my waist. I am exhilarated and equally terrified. I haven’t been in an...

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We are approaching the end of the run of LeanerFasterStronger at Sheffield Crucible, and have had a fantastic response to the work in the regional press, on twitter, and via the Guardian and Sheffield theatres’ website. This is the start of a period of reflection for me – what lessons might be learnt? How much of my initial ambitions and intentions have I achieved? When I was approached by Chol Theatre with this commission, I had no interest in sport outside...

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And here we are at the end of week 2 of rehearsals for the Sheffield Theatres/Chol Theatre co-production of the world premiere of LeanerFasterStronger by Kaite O’Reilly. Time has flown by in the rehearsal room, but so much has been achieved – including a rough stagger run on day 9. The project has been an extraordinary two-year journey of collaborative research and discovery – and my aim now as director is to condense and continue this journey in rehearsals whilst also doing...

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My friend and mentee the playwright Rosaleen McDonagh sent me this link to her article in this month's Irish Theatre Magazine, which I have put on my blog. She talks about "cripping-up" and quotes me, giving some insight into the Irish context, which I think is fascinating (especially as I edited Face On: Disability Arts in Ireland and Beyond' - featuring Rosaleen - some years ago). -- Rosaleen McDonagh discusses her new play 'Mainstream' and the challenges of casting...

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The acclaimed American crip poet Jim Ferris is coming to Wales in mid-March to work with Disability Arts Cymru. He's doing a workshop and a reading - I've arranged for two other readings in Wales - and have been trying to get some further interest and support from other disability cultural organisations, to seize the opportunity of showcasing his work, getting readings, etc, whilst he is in the UK. Sadly, I've not had any response to date, so am trying again. He will be in...

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Kaite O'Reilly continues her run-down of events in 2011. Cardiff, November 2011: I'm in a studio with a group of outstanding performers, some internationally renowned, others forging reputations as 'people to watch'. Also present is John McGrath, artistic director of National Theatre Wales, choreographer/movement director Nigel Charnock, designer Paul Clay, and emerging director Sara Beer. We're here to develop In Water I'm Weightless and I can't quite believe it's happening. The project is a...

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I began this blog back in August 2011 after I realised that 2012 would bring an embarrassment of riches production-wise. As the forthcoming work is diverse in aesthetic, process and content, I felt much might be learnt, and writing a blog might help externalise my learning, publicise the work and document the processes of devising, playwriting, co-creating, collaborative montaging. I'm excited by what 2012 will bring, and the diversity both of the work and the creative approaches I'll be...

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I am delighted to see 'In Water I’m Weightless', my Unlimited Commission to be produced by National Theatre Wales in 2012, was included in the preview guide to London 2012. ‘Britain’s biggest ever cultural festival’ over the weekend. I quote from a story within the festival supplement, titled 'Stories that Come to Life' A character hears sound for the first time, while the audience reads sign language in back-projected subtitles in a powerful experimental work that...

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Many text-based productions are straight-forward in content and form: they are interpretations of existing scripts. So what's the process for a ensemble piece using music, design, movement and selected monologues, with a newly-formed company who have never all met, never mind collaborated before? This has been the challenge to National Theatre Wales this week, in development with In Water I'm Weightless, my commission from Unlimited, part of the Cultural Olympiad. We have a sterling cast of...

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When I received the Arts Council Wales Creative Wales Major Award back in 2008, I spent a year exploring the form of the dramatic monologue, seeing solo work in Europe and the US, meeting and being mentored by experts of the form, like Sara Zatz and Ping Chong Company in New York. I shadowed part of Ping Chong’s 'Undesirable Elements' series, watching testimonial theatre in various school halls and community centres in Brooklyn, the participants/performers using their own autobiographies...

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Some years ago I received a Creative Wales Major Award from Arts Council Wales, to begin a project I called The ‘d’ Monologues – short dramatic solos written specifically for Deaf and disabled performers. There is a dearth of plays with disabled characters, and when these are produced, the parts are invariably played by non-disabled or hearing actors. Those who know me and my play 'peeling' will know I’m not a fan of this kind of casting. As...

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I have a love-hate relationship with publicity materials and the PR machine. I know production images, blurb and press releases are essential for the successful publicising of a production, but that still doesn’t lessen the pain of trying to create material that bears some relation to the content of the show, whilst also keeping artistic integrity, and not giving the game away…. I know it’s a personal predilection, but I dislike publicity material which tells me too much....

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I'm in Canada, revising the next draft of LeanerFasterStronger, the Cultural Olympiad commission from Chol Theatre in a co-production with Sheffield Theatres. The project is part of Extraordinary Moves, a major strand of the imove programme, which celebrates and challenges the relationship between people and their moving bodies through a series of arts projects across Yorkshire. One of the processes I use when redrafting is to go back and revisit all the source material I've found that when...

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I get an email from Andrew Loretto, creative producer of Sheffield Theatres. It is short, focused, almost telegraphed, as is the nature of missives from scarily busy individuals. How about if the title is presented as a continuous energy as follows: 'LeanerFasterStronger' he asks enigmatically, except I know what he is referring to, and it’s a great suggestion. Andrew will direct one of my commissions next year, a co-production between Chol Theatre in Huddersfield and Sheffield Crucible,...

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Comments

Michael Northen

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27 March 2012

Jim is indeed an outstanding leader in disability poetry and was great to work with in putting together Beauty is a Verb. Another review of Slouching Towards Guantanamo can be seen at http://www.wordgathering.com/past_issues/issue18/book_reviews/ferris2.html

kaite O\'Reilly

Thanks so much for your interest - Colin has passed on your email to me, so I'll be in touch.

You can see more about my work on my blog, which this is syndicated from: www.kaiteoreilly.wordpress.com and my website, which is www.kaiteoreilly.com

I edited FACE ON:Disability Arts In Ireland and Beyond for Padraig Naughton and Arts Disability Ireland some years ago and tht, combined with hailing from Dublin, gives me a good sense of the difference in contexts and cultures to the Irish and UK disability arts scene - which is fascinating in itself.

It'd be great to have a natter and thanks for initiating this connection. Much appreciated.

Cathy O Kennedy

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29 November 2011

Hi my name is Cathy and i am a Irish based Choreographer working with integrated dance processes. I was attracted to your writing because of it's title in addition to my interest in research with integrated dance in Ireland.I am currently working on a project titled 'WEIGHT' with dancers/ choreographers Bobby Byrne (Ireland and Spain) and Caroline Bowdwitch (Scottish Dance Theatre). Our process is based on Bobby's writing and it would be great to open a dialogue with your project. is that something you would be interested in?

Trish Wheatley

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